India Becomes Top US Smartphone Exporter As Trade War Pressures Drive Supply Chain Shift From China

India has emerged as the leading smartphone supplier to the United States for the first time, capturing 44% of U.S. smartphone imports in the second quarter of 2025 as manufacturers accelerate production shifts away from China amid escalating trade tensions.

What Happened: Made-in-India smartphone shipments to the U.S. surged 240% year-over-year, according to new research from Canalys. China’s share of US smartphone shipments plummeted from 61% in Q2 2024 to just 25% in Q2 2025 as vendors frontload inventories to mitigate potential tariff risks.

Apple Inc. AAPL drove much of this transformation through its “China Plus One” strategy, dedicating most of its Indian export capacity to U.S. markets. The iPhone maker began manufacturing Pro models of the iPhone 16 series in India while maintaining dependence on Chinese facilities for a scaled U.S. supply of premium devices.

“Apple has scaled up its production capacity in India over the last several years and has opted to dedicate most of its export capacity in India to supply the U.S. market so far in 2025,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys.

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Why It Matters: The supply chain reorientation comes as President Donald Trump confirmed 25% tariffs on smartphones manufactured outside the U.S., specifically targeting companies like Samsung Electronics SSNLF and others. The tariffs are expected to take effect by late June 2025.

Despite the manufacturing surge, the U.S. smartphone market growth remained modest at 1% in the second quarter of 2025, reaching 27.1 million units. Apple maintained its market leadership with a 49% share despite an 11% decline in shipments to 13.3 million units. Samsung gained ground with 38% growth to 8.3 million units, capturing 31% market share.

Motorola continued its expansion with 2% growth to 3.2 million units, while Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOGL GOOG Google grew 13% to 0.8 million units. TCL declined 23% to 0.7 million units.

India’s smartphone exports to the U.S. have become the country’s second-largest export category behind diamonds, jumping from $5.23 million in fiscal 2019 to $5.56 billion in fiscal 2024.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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